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Toughness 6 Bikers sounds good to me. Anyone done this? How did they fair?

My buddy is doing 30 of 'em.

I plan on playtesting them with him tomorrow.

Going against Gojira, so we'll see.

I played with a unit of 4....2 meltaguns...their purpose was to run up the board and take out armour....however, I quickly realized that the number of models was waaaaay to small....and I didn't want to invest too many points into a unit that usually gets tied up in H2H, or blown up by a hail of bolter fire....

Some conversion ideas for you....

Oh and BTW....Nurgle bikers die really easily to powerfists....lol...especially if the unit with that power fist is able to kill off 1 or 2 bikers.....they unit won't last a round in H2H....even with an Aspiring Champion....you'd need to have A LOT of bikers!!!!! 30 sounds really scary!!!!

Matt is that you?

I was going to use loyalist marine bikes. they look bulkier giving me more room to sculpt pustules and entrails or whatever else would be coming out of a plague rider. I would likely be using the sacred number of 7.

I havent used nurgele bikes, but from pure statistics and general experience they should do well, as long as they stay focused on certain roles.

Doing thirty is definately a good way to get a feeling for them, but in the end im positive that less will do much better. As said before bikes dislike Fists.

They also dislike standing in the open without turboboosting, becouse their price makes them a jucy target for all high str good ap weapons like Plasma etc.. Thus shooting with the bikes will be limited to special situations where they can sneak up a flank or something.

I envision bikes being best in rather small even numbers, like 4 for example, where they can use their mobility to make the most of terrain. Given that they are T6 they will be practically immune to small arms fire and a 3+ invul. after boosting plus terrain makes them almost immune to Lascannons etc.

After closing in, bikes make great light and heavy infantry killers for a number of reasons. T6 with 3+save will make them pretty much imune to basic troopers attacks, and their speed should result in a likely charge bonus, plus positional advantages.

To counterballance their low number and weakness to Fists, I advise to max Powerweapons and propably join a character on bike to them.

Raider: You are correct on a number of points. A) they are tough to take down with small arms fire. B) when in H2H they are tough to wound. C) turbo-boosting 3+ invul. save is awesome. D) Small unit sizes offer the best use of terrain.

However, through many games with a 4 man squad, and a traditional 7 man squad I've learned the following. They die to mass fire, they die in H2H....I do like your suggestion of attaching a character on a bike...this would give them more of a chance to survive H2H. Now to back up what i've stated. A 3+ invul save is the same as a 3+ normal save to anything that isn't AP3 or better. You still fail on a 1 or 2....sure toughness 6 is awesome and greatly reduces the chances of being wounded.....BUT....if you're caught in that dreadful rapid fire range, you're opponent is GOING to get a number of wounds on you....
H2H....if you're unit is charged....say goodbye to them! Let's assume that you are able to make it into H2H with a full 7 man unit (with AC with a power weapon) You're only throwing out 3 power weapon attacks, and 12 normal attacks....plus you're generally hitting on 4's and wounding on 4's....should yield about 2 power weapon kills, and 3-4 normal wounds....then you're opponent throws similar dice back at you....but they have a power fist (worst case scenario of course)...that PF kills almost half your unit....OUCH!!!! Repeat, if you're unit doesn't run away....

So the key....as Raider said....keep them to a specific task...objectives, destroying armour...just being a pain in the but....or....bulk up the numbers in the squad, which will leave them (for the most part) out in the open...the squad is just too big to hide behind cover.

No actual experiences with nurgle bikes, but lots with Wraithguard wha are also toughness 6 and 3+ save. Ok they're less maneuverable and can't get the invulnerable save, but I can echo ohm242's point that they go down faster than is often comfortable. Most often its things like fists and monstrous creatures that do the hurt and they don't care how extra tough you are. If you're gonna use them, I see their utility as being flexible sweeper units and objective grabbers, not mainline - take it on the chin units. In that respect, smaller and more units would surely give you more flexibility. Just my 2 cents.

but they have a power fist (worst case scenario of course)...that PF kills almost half your unit....OUCH!!!! Repeat, if you're unit doesn't run away....

That is why you have to use the extra speed to modify your kill zone to take care of that PF ASAP and you should never be assaulting with such a delicate unit without support. Possible a Raptor Squad would be good.

Thanks for all the advice. I have decided not to field Nurgle Bikers. The toughness 6 seems redundant against powerfists/rending. Would make a good modeling project though. Thanks all.

I've used small squads before, 4 and 5 man units...great for harasser and smoking out sniper squads who generally suck at CC anyways, and for the odd MC or Tank sitting unsupported. Unfortinatly even at T6 they lack the staying power against even some basic troops. Think of the fire coming off anything that can rapid fire, or in the case of Eldar and Gaunts Assault-2. The bikers go down to the law of averages. Expensive averages.

That being said, if I manage to run my Chaos more (and I wont likely, as its being donated at some point soon) I'll probably still run a 4 man squad just to get that extra fast PF out there. I dont think I'll take the points for MoN though.

Really? I dropped TMC on the bikers, and I killed less than 1 biker per TMC.

Compare to a normal marine list, and that's awesome.